Residents of Thathamangalam and Karimankunnu, near Mannarkkad here, heaved a sigh of relief on Sunday when experts deputed by the government safely placed a set of corroded barrels containing 314 litres of endosulfan in heavy-duty polythene drums imported from Japan.
The barrels kept in a godown of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) have raised safety concerns in the locality in the last four years ever since the global ban on the killer pesticide.
Protest by local people
Local people had went on an agitation seeking remedial measures against a possible leak of the pesticide from the corroded barrels, which had been brought there for aerial spraying in an estate of the PCK. The phase one of the disposal operations, titled Operation Blossoms Spring, was handled by 30 experts led by Mohammed Asheel, assistant nodal officer of the Endosulfan Victims Rehabilitation Cell. District Collector K. Ramachandran and Mannarkkad MLA N. Shamsudheen supervised the work, which lasted for about two hours.
To avoid any risk, a three-tier security cordon was ensured at the area. The entire process was shown to the public by installing closed-circuit televisions.
Detoxification
Mr. Asheel said the polythene drums would prevent the chemical from leaking and the drums would be handed over to qualified international agencies for detoxification and disposal by December 12.
Tenders in this regard had already been invited. The selected agency would take the drums out of the locality to safer areas outside the State for complete disposal. Barrels placed in similar drums in Kasaragod also would be disposed of along with those from Mannarkkad.
The same experts had safely placed barrels containing 1,600 litres of endosulfan in drums there. The drums could keep the chemical safe for five years.
The District Collector explained to the local community that the operation was being carried out in compliance with the guidelines of the World Health Organisation, Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the UN’s Stockholm Convention on handling persistent organic pollutants.
Operations under way to place barrels containing endosulfan in polythene drums at a godown of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala in Mannarkkad in Palakkad on Sunday.
